What a fantastic year! The society has achieved so much:
Gosia, one of our teachers, made this fabulous video, which basically sums up the whole year:
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Sadly, my term as president of this wonderful society comes to an end soon. So before I handover to the next person I just wanted to write a soppy blog about the year we’ve had! I started my presidency May 2015. London Tango Festival being one of our first events as a society with me organising it. And I bought my first pair of tango heels. But you can read about that in my previous blog. I haven’t written since September, so that’s where I’m starting off from: We kicked off the new academic year with a sad farewell from our ex-ex president Andrew Wilburn, whom has now moved to the USA. However, just before he did, we all went to Blackpool Tower Tango Ball. It was so lovely to see all the old members who introduced me to Tango two years ago. I remember my very first lesson; I had to put my hands on someone’s chest to understand “the connection”… I was mortified! It was so awkward, I didn’t want to be in someone else’s personal space, and I sure didn’t want someone else in mine. Andrew and Debs were very encouraging though, they said “I was a natural”. Which I don’t believe for one minute, but the sentiment was there. Anyway, as horrified as I was by all this “closeness” and “touching”, I still promised them I’d come back for another lesson. Another lesson turned into another, and many, many more. And after 8 weeks of learning Tango, myself and our-now-treasurer-but-like-me-is-graduating, Tom, decided to join the exec as joint social secretary. We are sociable people. We like drinking and going out and parties and chatting – the perfect role for us. Little did we think we would become so obsessed with Tango it would literally run our lives. (I did write run, not ruin) After a year of social secretary, I ran for president. Tom ran for treasurer. So, seeing all the old members in Blackpool was like a final handover. They taught us how to dance, what a milonga is, the etiquette etc. And now it was our turn to teach the new intake of fresher’s exactly these things. Here are my favourite photos from the night: (courtesy of Rex Boyd and Keith Shaw Buckley) Term 1 starts. Time to recruit new people. How do we make tango interesting? As always, we struggled to compete with the Salsa society who just have a ridiculous number of members!! But we picked up some gems to introduce Tango to. And like in my life, Tango will forever be a part of their lives’. Maybe it’s the addictiveness of that feeling after you’ve just had an amazing tanda? Maybe it’s the fact it’s such a small, niche society, everyone knows everyone, and everyone is friendly? Or maybe, just maybe, I was the influence for someone to stay in the society and dance. I’d like to think so. Teaching is a hard task. A lot of planning goes into it beforehand, music has to be sorted, rooms have to be booked, emails have to be sent and answered. And most importantly, my teaching partner and I have to know what we’re doing! Everyone has their own style of dancing; but you can’t teach that. I thought it best to teach the “standard/conventional” way. Then, later we can work on developing and interpreting one’s own tango. This was difficult, especially with my partner, who has never had a tango lesson outside the university. He is a good dancer, but when it comes to explaining things, well, let’s just say he doesn’t use tango vocab or technique… I decided the best way to teach was to incorporate everything I’ve learnt from all the different teachers I’ve had the honour of being taught by. My main influences being from: my original teachers, Andrew and Debs, my first professional teacher, Dante, then of course Maria Solero, Leandro Palou & Maria Tsiastiani and from Shanghai, Gus, Vivien and Mattias. Thank you all! It sounds cheesy, but you people, and many others, some just from videos or from watching at milongas, have inspired me to inspire others. The society’s next big adventure – Warwick Tango Festival. This really should have been a blog post in itself, but I was bogged down in work, and I although I attended everything: I had to babysit the dear, sweet Tammy for Jenny y Ricardo Oria who were our guest teachers for the weekend. The entire festival was a huge feat for Warwick. There isn’t one every year, and for such a small place, we had so many dancers!! I am so happy I was a part in this! Can’t wait for the next one! Christmas came and went. We said goodbye to Eshani. One of our most committed members who had to fly back home to India. We’re still awaiting your return dear! Eshani and I became regular Negracha goers. When we were both free on a Friday night (which was tragically far too often) we’d always go to Negracha together! Then coffee and gossip after! Term 2 started. We restarted the beginners’ course to encourage another intake of members. And our amazing resident teachers Gosia & Dawid took on the improvers’ class. This soon became our performance class for Pizazz – The annual Warwick dance show. Something we haven’t been a part of for a couple of years; I was determined to show Warwick uni who we are and what we have to show. I chose La Cumparsita as the music to dance to. For many reasons, one, it’s famous. It was played on Strictly Come Dancing last year. Two, there are many dramatic pauses which look good on stage. Three, many repeated phrases means less choreography to write. And four, definitely the silliest reason; before I hated this song. I refused to dance the last tanda sometimes to avoid this song. It’s so predictable! But now, after weeks of playing it on repeat, I actually quite like it and it reminds me of the fabulous job we all did in Pizazz. I was solely in charge of writing the choreography; I don’t think anyone had any faith in me. I wanted it to be dynamic, lots of levels, movement, interesting and vibrant. However, only I could see what I was aiming for; we got there in the end though when the week before when we filmed a run through, everyone could finally see what I had envisaged! And we looked spectacular! I cannot express how moved l I am by everyone’s commitment. Rehearsals every day, some at 9am, me getting snappy. Thank you so much Luana, Sophie, Teresa, Johnny, Rhys, Tom & Yacine. Photos attached. More on our Facebook page. And that brings us back to now. April. Once term starts again, the poll will open to nominate yourself as president (and of course our other positions: Treasurer, Secretary, Social secretary & Equal opps). If you’re unsure of whether to run – Just do it! You already know what an amazing society this is, why not be part of how its run! We’re a small society, so it’s not a burden on your university workload, and it looks fab on your CV. Employers like this ;) and if you don’t run – who will? Hmm! We don’t want this society to fade away. We’ve become so much more recognised this year, we have a bright future ahead!! I’ve had the best of times being your president. I love this society and I love tango. You are all amazing people and beautiful dancers. Don’t stop tangoing… ever! All my love, Your outgoing president, Charlay (PS. I will still write blogs for you all) Shanghai, China (上海,中国)
上个月我去上海,很有意思!我可以练习我的汉语,参观名胜古迹和当然跳舞探戈! 。。。。。。 Don’t worry, I’m not going to write this whole blog in Chinese. I’ll leave that for my university assignment! So, where was I? Oh yes, I went to Shanghai to dance tango. There are two schools in the city TangoBang and TangoGo. I spent most of my time at TangoBang, it was the first one I went to, the locations was closer to where I was staying, and the students were my age. The two teachers there were both Argentine. One was only nineteen years old! He was so cute! And three were Chinese. The class was taught in English and then translated as we went along into Chinese. I could practise Tango and Chinese – the perfect set-up! They probably had about 30 students whom regularly turned up. I went to all the classes I could including the beginners’, I always like to have the basic steps fine-tuned. And I learnt a lot. Perhaps not in terms of moves, I could already follow and lead the new moves they were teaching. But I learnt about how to teach tango to beginners, how to keep the students interested, stretches and what you can do outside the lessons to improve your dance. And one big thing I have taken away from my visit is my embrace. I’ve fixed that! Which in my mind has made the whole trip worth it – if I can’t hold my partner in a comfortable, non-restricting, fluid embrace, then it isn’t going to create a nice dance and I can’t expect to be asked again. Also, from a vain perspective; I look much better! One lesson which really educated me was the Music & Movement class. In this, we studied a piece of music, and had it translated from the Spanish to English to Chinese. We learnt about the significance and cultural references of the lyrics, and after we danced until we were sick of hearing it. Sounds quite brutal, right? But it does wonders to your dancing; think about your favourite song. Why is it your favourite? Obviously because the lyrics mean something. And that’s the same with tango; once you understand what the artist is singing about, the connection becomes so much more than just with your partner, you become connected to the music as well. A trio on the dancefloor. This probably sounds blatant to some – but it’s something I’ve only just really come to understand. How I found the other school - Tangogo was more serendipitous than anything else. It was my first Saturday in Shanghai, I’d just finished the lessons in TangoBang, and so I asked the teacher where the milongas are in this city. He said there was one tonight 8.30pm at 瑞金南路。It was 6pm now; travel, have dinner, and I’ll be there on time. Turns out eating dinner in China is a very fast process and I still had over an hour to kill. So I wandered the streets of Shanghai, browsing the shops and people-watched. Anyone who has been to China will know Westerners are a rare sight. Even in Shanghai, outside the tourist areas, you just don’t see foreigners. So, whenever I see anyone, I always give some sort of acknowledgment, be it a nod or a smile. As I was wandering, I saw this guy on the side of the street, he looked friendly, I wanted to sit down, and I felt like having a conversation in English, so I approached him and said hi. Turns out he is the Argentine Tango teacher for Tangogo, and knows our dear Ricardo Peixoto from Warwick. (He sends his regards if you are reading this). I was (and still am) utterly shocked by how mind-bogglingly small the Tango society is. It’s crazy! I travel half way across the world, and this guy was naming numerous teachers I know from the UK. Imagine how quickly Tango gossip would spread if there was any? HA! The milonga was lovely. They have a really nice venue, a bar, great DJ, lots of good leaders, dancing until 2am. What more do you need? Also, £10 gets you entry AND two free drinks! London definitely need to adopt that policy! The teachers there were from a mix of places, Argentina, Ukraine, Russia and China. And they were all such charming, delightful people too. I don’t think I could choose between the two schools. I wish they were friends though, and frequented each other’s milongas, rather than act like enemies and only communicate when they have to. I do wonder how they coordinated Shanghai Tango Festival this year, but I didn’t go so I shan’t comment. Aside from that; I had such an amazing, unforgettable time. I certainly plan to return. With hopefully more milongas to attend and more people to dance with! 中国,我想念你。 With love, Charlay 刘小雪 I was born in London. I wasn't raised there, but I still call it home. I visit at least once a month. I love everything about it; the endless things to do, WestEnd theatre, so many free events, the clubs, pubs & nightlife - And of course THE TANGO!
We bring you exciting news! Twice a term we host a milonga for our students and the surrounding area. This has always been held at our beloved university. But after receiving feedback (and our roof collapsing anyway), we are excited to announce our FIRST milonga in LEAMINGTON SPA. When: Saturday 20th June. 7-11pm Where: Pinx Gym, 13 Radford Road, Leamington Spa. CV31 1NF Plus: FREE taster session at 6.15pm As always, light refreshments will be made available. Dress code smart, no jeans please. We're saying goodbye to many of our current members as they graduate this year. And as a society, we won't be back again until the new term in early October. So let's have one last Hurrah! The venue is less than 10minute walk from the train station. Prices are £3 for students/members. £5 for non-students. And the taster session is completely FREE! Everyone is welcome It's going to be a great night for all! Over the weekend many of us went to the festival in Islington, London hosted by Nati y Bruno from Tanguito. It was amazing! Saturday night was jam-packed. It was hard to dance at all until past midnight. But the atmosphere was great. And the performances were phenomenal! I've been trying to copy the way Christina Sosa does those tiny little ochos. She makes them look so easy and delicate.. Whilst I literally look like a waddling penquin! Miriam y Dante's second performance was definitely my favourite! In the words of our ex-president: Andrew (who had slightly too much to drink) "the dance was very contemporary. They dance so well together. And Miriam is something special, the things she can do - She's beautiful". Sunday night was much quieter; after the neighbours complained about the noise. Pfft! People need to appreciate Tango. It's not like we were blasting out heavy metal all night! Plus, the neighbours were a fire station and a pub! I'm sure they make far more noise on a regular basis! It didn't ruin the milonga though. I still had a fantastic time! I barely sat down. AND I bought a new pair of Tango shoes - although I refuse to check my bank statement now... It was worth it though. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. I just had to buy them. I knew I'd regret it otherwise! They're from Balanceo :) I missed out on the Friday and Monday nights and all the workshops sadly. But it was a fabulous weekend! Thank you to all the organisers, DJs, behind the scenes people & all the attendes. Roll on London Tango Festival 2016!!! Ciao, Charlay Warwick Argentine Tango Society have not had a webpage in a very long time.
So here's to the new page. Raise your glasses! On this News page, we will keep you updated on all the exciting things the society gets up to. Posting pictures of our milongas, other milongas, funny stories from our socials. You name it! Please like our facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Warwick-Argentine-Tango-Society Until another day. Tango on! The Exec |
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